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Zarin Virji's Gopal's Gully is an ode to friendship. The author shares her journey as a writer on Lumiere Wise Wednesday. A creative writing graduate from the University of Sheffield, Zarin is passionate about teaching and writing. Her core profession is that of teacher, teacher trainer, and Principal of The Universal School, Tardeo - an IGCSE school. As a part of the core team of 'Education Today Society Tomorrow' - initiatives of the change program, Zarin expresses herself

As India inches close to becoming the most populous country in the world, one aspect that continues to be under constant scrutiny is how the country fluctuates in its health index. According to the latest Global Hunger Index, India, which ranks 100 out of 119 countries, is one of the countries with the “lowest reduction in hunger” in the nine years. Companies operating in India understand now the importance of addressing the BOP segment both for its volumes and its potential.

Hema Hattangady shares her life’s journey on Lumiere Learning Monday. She is a Mentor, Author, Independent Director, and Former CEO of Conzerv systems Pvt. Ltd., acquired by Schneider Electric. Hema has a Bachelor's degree in Commerce and a Post Graduate Diploma in Management PGDM from the premier Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata. She also has a post-graduate diploma in French from Karnataka University. She has co-authored a book with Ashish Sen titled Lift Off - Trans

The Beginning: We were invited to undertake leadership development for SETCO Foundation, the CSR initiative of a large Automotive ancillary major, SETCO Automotive. Meeting their President, Ms. Urja Shah, sitting in on their presentation, studying their their annual report and website gave us confidence on the passion and intent fueling the vision, ‘to enable a community to actively ensure that every child and woman has full access to healthcare, nutrition, education and an o

Connecting and leveraging his contacts to start a volunteer network, is Shishir Joshi's mantra to plugs into the core of Mumbai city - Kindness. "Oh, I know Shishir. He is a great guy", says many an admirer, responding to the Lumiere event promo. He is the Founder and Chief Executive, of the not-for-profit Project Mumbai (www.projectmumbai.org). Structured as a registered public trust, it strives for social transformation through initiatives of scale —where People are the Pu

The way people communicate, get entertainment, shop, and socialize has changed dramatically. Thanks to the smartphone, access to consumers has also changed. It is now possible to reach people across geographies, socio-economic status, cultures and ethnicities without any prohibitive barriers like high costs and distance. We at Lumière recently explored a new dimension of moderation with consumers across the globe sitting comfortably back at our offices. While we have been d

In 2017 we received an opportunity to conduct capacity building and leadership development for Setco Foundation. Setco Foundation started out as a CSR initiative of the Setco Auto Limited (SAL), a market leader in the manufacture of automotive clutches. When Urja Shah, the creative and strategic thinking President of the Foundation invited us to work with them, she had done the necessary due diligence. Our client list included St. Jude Childcare Centres (SJCC) doing exemplary

Prelude: The phone rings a couple of times. The founder CEO of a leading fashion accessories brand comes on the line. We had undertaken a small qualitative research project two years ago. The study objective was to understand usage and purchase habits in the category. The research design was five focus groups in two metro cities. In the report we identified four consumer profiles. After the research, the client wanted some additional guidance on sizing up the opportunity. Wha

An accomplished vocalist and an independent Qualitative Market Research consultant, Deepti Rege worked as a core team member of Lumiere before she set herself up as an independent. Deepti talks about how she navigated her journey. She talks about how she observed, understood, and rewired her thinking to change the course of her destiny. M&M - Music and Moderation Talent and a deep interest in music led Deepti to become an accomplished vocalist with a Master's degree in Music

Manisha Kapoor, is currently the Secretary General of The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI). A multi-faceted professional, she has been a brand marketer and a consultant. Manisha has helped companies establish and nurture brands through brand building, new product development, marketing and media strategy development. She has helped businesses grow and differentiate through integration of social development goals into business and brand strategy. In her current ro

OBJECTIVE: Project Persone was a project to understand who the NRI customer based out of the gulf is, a special understanding of the NRI Priority Customer. PROTOCOL: A detailed study of the customer profile by in-depth interviews at their home . 10 such interviews were conducted. ACTION: Understanding the life of a GCC NRI –in India and abroad. Detailed understanding of his banking and financial needs. Mapping his needs to the different emerging profiles and hence developing

An exemplary teacher, devoted to inclusiveness is what defines our guest speak - Ms.Neena Jacob. She personifies acceptance, inclusiveness and compassion. Lead by example is her motto. She is currently one of the trustees at The Sethu Foundation, Goa. The core focus of The Sethu Foundation is to bring many more children into the mainstream education. A trained architect at the J J School of Art, Neena chose education as her profession. She has impacted the lives of ~ 45,000 s

A prolific writer, thinker, philosopher, trainer and a change maker are some of the descriptors for our guest speaker Dr. Priya M Vaidya. An Associate Professor at the Department of Philosophy in the University of Mumbai, Priya has a doctorate in Swami Vivekananda's and Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy of education. She is passionate about bringing in a reflective and values-based approach in society. Naughty Child to a Reader From a young age, Dr. Priya had interesting questions a

Lumière undertook an interesting study for an Online Service Provider, which sought to understand how Indian businesses perceive online advertising. It studies their attitudes towards online advertising and looks into how aware of ‘search marketing' Indian businesses are. The study reveals that perceptions of online advertising differ according to the size and type of a business. The need for online advertising depends mainly on a few parameters, viz., the objective of the c

Awadh Decoded Jhankar Gadkari is a man on a mission. This is the third city he plans to bring to his audience in the 12 city circuit. Jhankar is a popular Lumiere Learning Monday guest speaker. He took us on a virtual historical journey to Mumbai and to Delhi in seasons 1 and 2. "If Jhankar were my history teacher, I would have learned and remembered a lot of my history" , is the reaction from many a listener. Jhankar's purpose is to talk about the little-known tipping point

Written by Juili Dharmadhikari and Deepa Soman Planning and Preparing It was after I interviewed Soundari Mukherjea on Learning Monday, that I learned about one more facet to her persona - pottery! The potter's wheel is a metaphor for God's creation of "clay", man. As a people collector, I lend a platform for interesting people to talk about their life and work on the Lumiere Learning Monday. A person has many layers and the longer one's history with a person, the more storie

Lumière undertook a unique project for an MNC in September 2006, wherein we worked closely with a reputed management institute to put together a syllabus for key distributors in the 4 zones. The objective was to enhance skill sets of distributors with the objective of achieving greater business growth in the future Lumière conducted focus groups among the distributors across the four regions. The research tool N-Light© IdeaCon was utilized to define learning needs, the scope

Nature as Teacher Vijaya's curiosity and intelligence were shaped in her growing up close to nature in the deep Western Ghats. She learned about wild fruits and birds. St. Xavier's College opened up another world. Libraries jostled besides movie halls. Her academic, cultural and nature education had begun. Movies and books became her teachers along side learning via nature trails with the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) and Friends of Trees (FOT). Xavier's has been one

Discovering Eleanor's Magic We were preparing for a Lumiere Learning Monday session by Ramesh Lakshman. I got interested in the subject and attended a session by Eleanor Crisswell Hanna, his teacher of Somatic Yoga. After the event I spoke to Ramesh about trying Somatics for my frozen shoulder. I had taken a few physiotherapy sessions by then but was not taking any medication. I attended an 8-week program called "Myth of Ageing" with Ramesh Lakshman and invited friends in my

With an experience of 37 years in the teaching profession, Prof. Dr. Leena Chatterjee, retired in 2021. Celebrated and decorated, she ranks among the most popular faculties at IIM Calcutta. She has recently joined at BITSoM. Accidental Educator Prof. Leena Chatterjee never thought she would become a professor. Both parents were professional social workers. She learned the value of “being helpful”. Her father encouraged her to read books in sociology and psychology. She was